Daphne's Story

Daphne Bradford is a media producer, grassroots organizer, and a nationally recognized innovative educator and technology evangelist. A native of South Los Angeles, she spent her early childhood years in Compton and Inglewood, California, graduating from the all-girls high school St. Mary’s Academy. With the dream of becoming a real estate mogul and Wall Street financier, Daphne earned a degree in finance from Cal State Long Beach, becoming a real estate agent and earning her stockbrokers license at the infamous Shearson Lehman Brothers.

Leaving Wall Street behind to take care of her ailing grandfather, Daphne embarked on a modeling career with the encouragement of her mother. She entered a modeling contest for a beer company sponsored by the now-defunct KACE 103.9FM radio station owned by football Hall of Famer Willie Davis, thus beginning her radio career as a morning show producer and DJ. With a goal of becoming one of the top radio producers and on-air personalities, Daphne interviewed entertainers and politicians and appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show covering the 1992 riots in Los Angeles. When KACE was sold, Daphne was hired at low-powered KJLH 102.3FM, the last remaining black-owned radio station in Los Angeles which is still owned by legendary entertainer Stevie Wonder. She went to KJLH hoping to bridge entertainment and education and become a gospel music evangelist, until she experienced her #MeToo moment which derailed her dreams.

After stints at Fox and Sony, Daphne got back into broadcasting working with legendary syndicated radio pioneer Lee Bailey. She was the gospel music editor for Inside Gospel where she conducted one of the last radio interviews with civil rights icon Rosa Parks. That was the catalyst for Daphne’s new calling in life; the establishment of the non-profit organization Mother Of Many (M.O.M.) and her syndicated radio production company Queen James Entertainment. These two entrepreneurial and grass roots organizing ventures took her to Locke High School in Watts where she began teaching radio, music and video production, in partnership with music industry songwriter and infamous educator Reggie Andrews. Her dream of bridging entertainment and education led to Daphne becoming one of the most celebrated teachers in the nation with recognition from Apple, Microsoft, Google and being honored as a White House Champion of Change by President Barack Obama.